ZKQ Blog

SmartCollegeVisit Nominated as a Rising Star

 Smart College Visit, Inc. has been nominated for the NewVa Corridor Technology Council (NCTC) Rising Star award. According to Cory Donovan, executive director of the NCTC, the award recognizes a local technology company whose "star is rising." It may not be a household name yet, but it could soon be another local success story in the NewVa Region. Rising Star is just one of the award categories recognized by the NCTC at TechNite, the council's annual awards banquet.

A complete list of the 2010 TechNite award categories and nominees can be found on Handshake 2.0.

I am honored to nominated and listed in the company of my fellow nominees:

2D Array
ABS Technology Architects
AC&E, Inc.
Handshake 2.0
Interactive Achievement, Inc.
InteractiveGIS, Inc.
JPI
Keraderm, LLC
Knowledge NoteBook
MiserWare, Inc.
Modea
NetVentures Corporation
Nicus Software, Inc.
Smart College Visit, Inc.
TORC Technologies, LLC

TechNite will be held on Wednesday, April 7, 2010, with a reception at 5:30 p.m. followed by dinner and awards ceremony at 7:00 p.m. at the The Inn at Virginia Tech.

This year, TechNite is being held in conjunction with the VTKnowledgeWorks Entrepreneurship Summit, April 7-8. Smart College Visit, Inc. is also a finalist in the Summit's Open Business Concept Competition.

Some of my favorite companies have been nominated for TechNite awards or have been selected to pitch to angel investors at the Summit. Exciting times are ahead for entrepreneurs in Blacksburg, Va. in April! Congratulations to everyone participating in the events on April 7 & 8!!

Top 10 in Three Months on SmartCollgeVisit

The following excerpt is from Top 10 SmartCollegeVisit Blog Posts on SmartCollegeVisit.com.

In the three-plus months we've been creating content on the topic of college visits for you to read here on SmartCollegeVisit, it's been a pleasure to draw attention to some of the exceptional opportunities and people we've found involved with the colleges and universities we've been fortunate enough to get to know.

To read more and see the top 10 list, click this link: www.smartcollegevisit.com

Three Months New

Tuesday, February 9, 2010, was the three month launch anniversary for SmartCollegeVisit. A quick review of the first quarter of this startup includes the following highlights:

• A change in business status from sole proprietorship to corporation
• Fresh content creation: 79 blog posts written/edited -- roughly the same number of articles/posts I wrote as a freelancer during the entire year prior to the site's launch date
• Two custom tools developed:

* Smart College Evaluation form to help students and parents keep notes and track their college visits

* Smart Fuel calculator developed to help travelers estimate fuel costs for their college visits

• Branded hotel search page created
• Shop SmartCollegeVisit, an Amazon Affiliate store developed with product focus on travel and college guide related books and electronics
• Development of an evolving social media marketing strategy
• Development of an evolving traditional media marketing strategy
• Established series of college and university Twitter Lists
• Inclusion in the The Top 50 College Info Websites created by Suzanne Shaffer, founder of Parents Countdown to College Coach 
• Sponsorship of the First College Visit series on Handshake 2.0
• Membership in the VT KnowledgeWorks business acceleration program
• Authorship of the CollegeVisit TravelingMom column for TravelingMom.com

Things I have not done: printed business cards, found college student interns interested in learning how to build a social media marketing and public relations strategy, or figured out how to get more done faster. The "to do" list keeps growing as does the excitement and joy over creating a business based on passions of my own: the importance of a college education, the marketing of colleges and universities, and helping families through the college search and college visit process. People keep telling me the key to success in business is to follow your passion. I hope they're right.

Super Bowl Ads: The Play by Play

Who doesn't enjoy a good ad, a good joke, or a good meal? When properly prepared and delivered, each of these can leave you feeling thoughtful, happy and satisfied. So, how did you feel about the watching the most expensive advertisements created for television viewing during the Super Bowl?

I was still hungry when the game ended.

More satisfying than the actual ads was the running commentary on Twitter. Activity included: 2,695 tweets from 1,802 contributors. Tagged with the hashtags: #brandbowl (see http://brandbowl2010.com/ for ad rankings by popularity) , #superbowl, or #sb44, the Twitter chatter left me amused, enlightened, and happy to play ad critic in 140 characters or less.

Related Links:

Brand Bowl 2010 by Mullen & Radian

#BrandBowl Twitter Transcript from WhatTheHashtag

Honoring Super Bowl XLIV: Top 10 44s

We Know the Super Bowl Is Really About the Commericals

First Appeared on Handshake 2.0: Size Matters - Your Social Media Footprint

EXCERPT from Handshake 2.0:

  Here on Handshake 2.0, the topic of enhancing a social media footprint as a means of getting found on the Web has been addressed many times. Authors of these posts have encouraged readers to Google themselves to find out how they rank in search results both as individuals and as the businesses they represent.

Continue reading at www.handshake20.com

Twitter: ZKQ Digest

I write about Twitter often -- it's the velcro of social media -- in that it has many fabulous uses and even more yet to be discovered. I wanted to make it easy to access my published work about Twitter, so I put together this digest. I hope you'll find it useful and enjoyable to read.

@CollegeVisit Twitter Lists (SmartCollegeVisit)

Making the List - Branding on Twitter (Handshake 2.0)

Twitter Talk (12/28/09) (Handshake 2.0)

My 140-Character Day (10/29/09) (Handshake 2.0)

Journalism 140: The Creative Twitter Challenge (10/13/09) (Handshake 2.0)

Elements of a Call-to-ActionTweet  (10/05/09) (Handshake 2.0)

Anyone with a Cell Phone can Tweet (09/27/09  (ZKQ Blog)

Drink Up - The Morning After Blogchat with Amy Africa (07/27/09) (Handshake 2.0)

Twitter Party Line - A Real-Time Thought Stream (05/19/09) (Handshake 2.0)

Twitter Power 5K (04/23/09) (Handshake 2.0)

Twitter This: The litest, lowest-fat, zero-calorie, fastest-growing form of communication in cyberspace (04/20/09, PDF) (Blue Ridge Business Journal)

Twitter - The Essential App at Mailtrust (03/12/09) (Handshake 2.0)

From "Follow" to "Follow-up"- Using Twitter in Business (02/20/09) (Handshake 2.0)

A Twiffic Twitter Exerience (02/19/09) (Handshake 2.0)

Would you hire a Leo?

Earlier this week, I wrote a post for Handshake 2.0 about the value of using assessment tools during the hiring process. Jennifer Leake, founder of Assessment Pros, explained to me that tools like the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and DiSC were never intended to be used for hiring purposes, but are best used to understand behavior and for self-assessment. I appreciate her explanation. While I have used MBTI for team building, I had always wondered if it could be used during the hiring process. I understand now that there are tools better suited to that.

In the post on Handshake, I wrote that, back in the 70's, I had been turned down for a job because I was born under the zodiac sign of Leo. My would-be employer already had two Leos working for him and he did not think adding a third would make for a good mix. While I was shocked to be turned down for that reason, it was several years later that I came to understand why he felt that way.

As I moved up and took on more responsibility in the various companies I worked for, managing teams and supervising staff were included in the promotions. Just like the manager who turned me down, I found I, too, needed a good mix of employees -- a well rounded group of people and personalities who could work well together. Turns out, getting this is more difficult than one would think, but tools like the MBTI really did help me in more than one enterprise and, today I carry with me the lessons I learned from those experiences. 

According to Astrology-online, Leos are the "most dominant, spontaneously creative and extrovert of all the zodiacal characters." I share a birthday with Robyn Smith, Susan Saint James, and Magic Johnson. Other famous Leos include Andy Warhol, Benito Mussolini, Rosalyn Carter, Jacqueline Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Hmm...makes me wonder...would I hire me?

Tweaking TypePad

TypePad is my tool of choice when it comes to creating blog sites. I currently have four active sites and numerous sub-pages in development. In the course of creating content, adding widgets, exploring ideas for grouping content, etc, I have found that I run across site elements that I may not want to use right away or need to test before publishing.

  This is especially true for SmartCollegeVisit. Development of this site is an organic process. I did not create a final vision of this web site and launch a finished piece of work. Instead, I created a work in progress. "Dynamic" is perhaps the better word choice.

The best way I've found to manage a dynamic site is to create a duplicate framework of the live site. I call this my "resource site." It looks just like my live site, minus the actual blog posts.

It's here where I play around with layout, add new elements, and test new features. I also store items that only need to be used at certain times of year. This way, I know that when I add new features to the live site, I can do so with confidence.

**For step-by-step instructions on how to create a resource site of your own, click here.**

Startup Lesson: People Will Surprise You

It's not exactly a news flash that people are full of surprises, but when my HARO query for the Smart See, Smart Do column on SmartCollegeVisit targeting colleges and universities asking for input about what not to miss during a campus visit resulted in responses from people other than admissions and public relations officers, I admit the "other responders" surprised me. In addition to responses from my target response group, I also received responses from tourism departments, alumni and community citizens. 

Tourism Departments and Visitor Bureaus

As I read through the emails from these other responders, I realized how fortunate are the schools who work closely with their city or state tourism office. By working together, the school gains a powerful ambassador of good will, often with access to resources outside the realm of traditional college PR. 

Alumni

There's nothing more heart-warming than to read a response from a school's alum sharing his or her opinion on what prospective students should see or do when they visit campus. This opens up a whole new aspect to college visit promotions. The information comes from someone who has "been there, done that," loved it, and hopes you will, too.

Community Citizens

It really speaks volumes about a place when someone not associated with a school is moved to voice an opinion about what should not be missed on a visit to campus. Knowing that people outside the college environment also love the campus and live in the college town or city adds value to the overall package represented by the school. 

What all of this shows me as a content creator, web site developer, marketer, and founder of a startup to promote college visits, is that if I'm to provide a valuable service to college-bound students and their families, that even I need look beyond the traditional college PR channels so I don't overlook the extended community that helps make the college visit experience the best it can be.

SmartCollegeVisit launched November 9, 2009.

Can Cats Make Snowballs?